Lovable Curmudgeons & a Salad (and Burgers, Cheese, Rolls, Brownies, Cakes, Pies, Pastry, and Cookies)

by Amy

** Note: I’m blogging about a scene in A GREAT RECKONING, but I will avoid the spoilers in the scene, so for those (few) of you who are Penny fans and have not yet read it, I promise I don’t give the mystery away. For those who read the blog and haven’t read the books, I don’t suppose it matters, right?

“Ruth says she wants a name for her cottage,” said Nathanial. “She asked me to choose one.”
“Really?” asked Myrna. “She asked you?”
“Well, more told me to find one,” he admitted. “And told me not to fuck it up.”
“So what’ve you come up with?” asked Clara.“We’ve narrowed it down,” said Huifen. “It’s between Rose Cottage” – she pointed to the sweetbriar roses around Ruth’s porch – “ and Pit of Despair.”
“I dare you,” said Clara, laughing […].” 

We all seem to love Ruth. In the online forum where I was first introduced to Louise Penny there was actually an ongoing competition as to who was the most Ruth-like of us (no… I wasn’t one of them – I’m more likely to relate to Reine-Marie, Clara, Lacoste & Jean-Guy).

But we do all seem to love Ruth. At least we love the character Ruth.

I recently read the book A MAN CALLED OVE, by Fredrik Backman. Ove is the most lovable curmudgeon I have ever had the pleasure to read. The only reason it’s easy to love him, though, is because we’re in his head all the time throughout the book. And, in being in his head and understanding his irrefutable logic (it’s irrefutable mainly because he refuses to be refuted – not because it’s particularly good reasoning) and deep integrity make it easy to empathize with him and laugh away his grumpy rudeness.

When we meet Ove he has lost the reason to live because he lost the person who gave his life meaning. It is in finding other people (much to his dismay and against his wishes most of the time) and becoming useful to them that he rekindles joy (to the extent that Ove is joyful) in life.

Ruth, like Ove, is frequently grumpy, bitter, annoyed at the stupidity of all those who fail to agree with her, lacking in interest in food for the most part, stingy, opinionated, and loyal to a fault. She will swear, criticize, and bully you into action out of a deep rooted kindness that is usually expressed in irritated exhortation.

We aren’t told what they end up naming her home.

Rose Cottage doesn’t seem to suit, does it? It sounds so ordinary and old lady sweet or fairy tale princess… not very Ruth-like.

While “Pit of Despair” might adequately describe her unpalatable dinner party (that is, until we read Libby’s improved version), her home might be more of a ladder out of despair than a pit where you dwell in it.

She is no stranger to despair and sorrow. We aren’t privy to the details (I wonder if we ever will be), but Ruth is a kind of mirror image of what Clara could become. All the sensitivity and perceptiveness and soft-heartedness worn away at by pain and regret and the kind of loneliness that ensues when the lump in the throat isn’t shared with those that love us.

Ruth and Clara both express themselves in their art. They both have an almost magical ability to see souls and to understand that which is unsaid. They have a depth of feeling that requires enormous strength in order to keep them whole – despite the cracks.

Who hurt you once so far beyond repair…

I am reminded by the George Eliot quote:

“That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” (GEORGE ELIOT – MIDDLEMARCH)

Ruth is far from stupid. She feels. I think her aggressiveness is an attempt to tune out the sound of the “grass growing”. Maybe she sees too much and understands too much and cannot hide behind the cushion of stupidity. So she chooses anger. It's a defense mechanism.

The blog Brain Pickings (a rabbit hole if there ever was one) has a wonderful essay on genius and the ability to face despair. Link here: Brain Pickings.

Clara is saved from that fate. So is Jean-Guy. And their savior, unlikely thought it may seem, is Ruth.

When Ruth witnessed Clara on the brink of falling into the “Pit of Despair”, she bullied her into facing herself. She told her (and probably warned her not to fuck it up) to face her demons and not become embittered and “greet each overture with curling lip”. She encouraged (she probably wouldn’t have used that word – dared, challenged or commanded might be more her style) Clara to use her art to help her heal – even if the process hurt.

When Jean-Guy was in the “Pit of Despair”, it was Ruth who managed to see him, find him, and reach him. He was beyond words or socially acceptable displays of kindness. She wouldn’t ever resort to those anyway. She uses words like the swords they are.

“There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.” (Prov 12:18)

Ruth knows despair.

Her home has witnessed it.

Her poems are the result of a lump in the throat and a measure of pain that we probably have only glimpsed at.

She knows despair, but her home is not the Pit of Despair.

Clara knew it. That’s why she painted that genius flicker of hope in Ruth’s eye.

Maybe it is familiarity with despair and deep emotional pain that make it easier for her to recognize it in others. Maybe it’s just a talent she was born with. But Ruth is exactly the kind of friend (although she isn’t friendly most of the time) who will pull you from the edge of despair if she can, or sit with you down in the pit if you’re there… and help you (or shake you, force you, impel you, dare you) to find a glimmer of hope. She won’t leave you in the pit.

I hope they found a better name. Ruth’s home deserves a good name. (Edited: They did. It's Another FINE Mess).

Have you ever named a house? I’m awful at naming things. I don’t know what I think Ruth’s house should be named. I agree with Clara in that Pit of Despair is funny… and I’d love to be able to “watch” if they ever actually suggested it to her face…

This meal was set up in her home and she was sitting in a rocker as friends gathered around…

“What were you looking at?” Jean-Guy asked Armand, as they stood on the village green eating burgers off the huge grill Olivier had set up. A long table had been brought out, filled with salads and fresh rolls and cheeses. Across the green was another, longer table with all sorts of cakes, pies, pastries. Cookies and brownies and candies and children.”

Aside from the actual scene and the humorous naming of Ruth’s home, I had a giggle when I realized we’d already food-blogged about every part of this meal! Isn’t that fun?! And isn’t it wonderful that the longer table is the one with all the sweets?! Loved it!

I had made a new salad this week and was looking through the meal list to see if I could sneak it into the blog somehow. I’ll add it here although I doubt it would be served accompanying burgers. 

Roasted Rainbow Carrot Salad

There’s no real recipe to this. I chopped baby rainbow carrots and added a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and covered them in aluminum foil and roasted them in the oven for about 25 minutes. They were tender, but not too soft. I let them cool a little bit and added some balsamic vinegar (a very non-measured and unquantifiable splash), a handful of pumpkin seeds, about half a cup of crumbled feta cheese, and tried it with a bit of cilantro and without because I wanted some green in there. I liked the colors with the cilantro, but I don’t think it went well with the other tastes. Next time I might add a bit of basil, that might be a better taste balance. I’m not sure. It was slightly on the sweet side for me, but it was a very enjoyable autumn-like salad!

And in case you needed proof that we’ve made some version of everything served in this meal, here’s a list! We’ve already blogged about:

Parenting & Veggie Burgers 

Salad & Loss/Tribute to Michael (Quinoa & AppleSalad) 

Salad & Mentors (Quinoa & Pomegranate Salad) 

Salad & Beloved Guests (Chickpea Salad) 

Salad & The Lies We Tell Ourselves (Chicken, greens,tomatoes & apples) 

Bread & Being a Good Audience (Art of Silence)

Cheese & The Best Kind of Friends 

Cheese & Hope and Fear 

Brownies & Myrna, Therapy & Books 

Pastry & Vulnerability

Pastry (Eclairs) & Growing Apart 

Pastry (Uneaten Danish) & Vulnerability and Failure to Engage 

Chocolate Cake & How the Light Gets In 

Lemon Meringue Pie & Seeing God

Pumpkin Pie & Mothers 

Chocolate-Coffee Mousse & Potential Social Disasters Pie 

Sugar Cookies & Being Faithful in the Small Things 

Hanna’s Cookies & Second Impressions 

Chocolate Chip Cookies & Daydreams 

Candies (In Search of Licorice Pipe)

Awesome, right?!